tagged w/ pollinators
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Rhonda Winter
EPA Allows Bayer’s Deadly Bee-Killing Pesticide
8 comments
December 18, 2010
Thanks to WikiLeaks we now have a bit more insight into what may be contributing to the increase of colony collapse disorder, and causing the death of our planet’s bees. A recently leaked memo has shown that the Environmental Protection Agency blatantly disregarded the findings of its own scientists, and allowed the Bayer Corporation to market its toxic pesticide, clothianidin, despite repeated warnings that the chemical could be devastating to a wide variety of creatures, most especially pollinating bees.
The Bayer corporation earned over $262 million dollars last year in sales of its deadly toxin clothianidin. In the United States, the dangerous pesticide is used on a variety of chemically grown crops, including corn, cotton and canola, even though it is highly toxic and is already banned in many other countries. According to Grist, the 101 page government memo was leaked to Colorado beekeeper Tom Theobald, and the document:
“… reveals that EPA scientists have declared essentially rejected the findings of a study conducted on behalf of Bayer that the agency had used to justify the registration of clothianidin. And they reiterated concerns that widespread use of clothianidin imperils the health of the nation’s honeybees.
Clothianidin has been widely used on corn, the largest U.S. crop, since 2003. Suppliers sell seeds pre-treated with it. Like other members of the neonicotinoid family of pesticides, clothianidin gets ‘taken up by a plant’s vascular system and expressed through pollen and nectar,’ according to Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA), which leaked the document along with Beyond Pesticides. That effect makes it highly toxic to a crop’s pests — and also harmful to pollen-hoarding honeybees, which have experienced mysterious annual massive die-offs (known as “colony collapse disorder”) here in the United States at least since 2006.“
The leaked EPA memo clearly explains that Bayer’s pesticide poison is not only deadly to bees and insects, but also:
“…poses an acute and chronic risk to freshwater and estuarine/marine free-swimming invertebrates.”
The document goes on to explain that, in addition to killing invertebrates and small birds, clothianidin also produces an acute and chronic risk to honey bee populations:
“Clothianidin’s major risk concern is to nontarget insects (that is, honey bees). Clothianidin is a neonicotinoid insecticide that is both persistent and systemic. Acute toxicity studies to honey bees show that clothianidin is highly toxic on both a contact and an oral basis. Although EFED does not conduct RQ based risk assessments on non-target insects, information from standard tests and field studies, as well as incident reports involving other neonicotinoids insecticides (e.g., imidacloprid) suggest the potential for long term toxic risk to honey bees and other beneficial insects. An incident in Germany already illustrated the toxicity of clothianidin to honeybees when allowed to drift off-site from treated seed during planting.”
Bayer’s Nazi War Profiteering History
Given the ugly history of the Bayer Corporation, as makers of chlorine gas, Nazi war profiteers, as well as supporters and financiers of torture, their treacherous behavior regarding this deadly chemical does not seem like much of a surprise. Bayer was the only company in Germany to actually run one of the Nazi death camps; the company not only sponsored the cruel and horrific “experiments” of Nazi Dr. Josef Mengele, in 1956 convicted war criminal Fritz ter Meer became chairman of the company, after having been sentenced at the Nuremberg trials to seven years’ imprisonment for his role in torturing and experimenting upon thousands of human prisoners in Nazi death camps.
When asked whether he had considered human medical atrocities in Auschwitz to be justified, he replied that this was irrelevant because:
“They were prisoners thus no particular harm was inflicted, as they would have been killed anyway.”
But what is the reasoning behind the EPA’s approval of this dangerous poison? Clothianidin has already been banned by Germany, France, Italy, and Slovenia because it is so dangerously toxic. Why is the Environmental Protection Agency still allowing this devastating chemical pesticide to be used? The EPA is allegedly in charge of protecting our environment, yet it increasingly sides with agri-business and chemical corporations. This time their reckless and irresponsible decisions could potentially destroy our entire food system by knowingly allowing the senseless slaughter of our planet’s most vital pollinator, the bee.Rhonda Winter
EPA Allows Bayer’s Deadly Bee-Killing Pesticide
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In normal times, David Hackenberg would begin trucking his 20 million honeybees from the almond orchards of California to the orange groves of Florida this week.
Instead, after a month working the almond blossoms on the West Coast, his exhausted pollinators will get some rest and relaxation in the Georgia woods before the East Coast apple blossoms summon them to work once more next month.
These are not normal times for bees, or for commercial beekeepers, so Hackenberg's pollinators will skip the citrus gig to reduce their exposure to pesticides and get some rest. "Everybody is seeing [bee] losses this winter," said Hackenberg, of Lewisburg, Pa. "This was probably the worst year ever."
More than three years after beekeepers starting seeing the sudden disappearance of hive populations, scientists have yet to find the cause -- let alone the fix -- for a condition called colony collapse disorder (CCD). Meanwhile, the commercial beekeeping industry is struggling to provide pollination services to the nations' farmers. One-third of food crops rely on insect pollination.
A recently published survey suggests that hive losses have stabilized at around 30 percent a year, but that high figure is based on last winter's data. Anecdotally, the losses have climbed this winter, although a formal tally won't occur until the spring.
"I am very concerned about this year based on what we have seen in California and other parts" of the United States, said Jeffery S. Pettis, research leader for the Agricultural Research Service's honey bee laboratory in Beltsville. He has visited the almond farms of California three times this winter to assess losses. The state's growers produce 80 percent of the world's almond crop and require 1.5 million of the nation's estimated annual peak of 2.5 million managed hives. In the halcyon days after World War II, there were more than 5 million managed hives in the United States, and countless feral honeybee colonies that are now gone.
Hackenberg said he and other major commercial beekeepers have seen "50 percent or better" losses since late fall and in the winter, when bees typically are clustered in a warm and fuzzy ball within the hive. "We started seeing losses in late October, early November -- and they just kept going through the middle of January," he said. Some of the losses will be made up by beekeepers splitting one strong hive into two weaker ones.In normal times, David Hackenberg would begin trucking his 20 million honeybees from... more
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Marquette, MI - Northern Michigan teens are continuing their mission to protect pollinators during 2009 by helping butterflies & restoring native plants to areas of the Upper Peninsula.
The best know, pollinators are bees - like honey bees & bumble bees.
Billions of these bees are dying across the world in a syndrome called Colony Collapse Disorder.
Bees are disappearing & it’s not clear why - although human impact on the environment are among the suspected causes like pesticides & global warming. A world without bees would mean world without food, as was dramatically pointed out in the Jerry Seinfield 2007 comedy Bee movie. Bees go on strike causing plants across the world die. That means no food, no flowers, no trees, the death of civilization. After bees, the next best pollinators are butterflies.
Marquette, MI area teens & Native American youth spent the summer of 2008 building butterfly houses that are longer & slimmer than birdhouses & are lined with bark.
Teens participating in the KBIC Summer Youth Program built & painted the houses at the tribe’s Natural Resource Department along Lake Superior.
KBIC Natural Resource Department Director Todd Warner said the Zaagkii Project is a good way for youth to become aware of their connection to natural resources & nature.
The butterfly houses offer protection to butterflies that can enter thru tiny slits.
Butterfly houses also offer rest to migrating monarchs & can be used for reproduction.
Marquette teens have planted or distributed 26,000 native plant including at the Hiawatha National Forest greenhouse in Marquette.
In the spring of 2009 some of the plants will be planted at several areas across northern MI including at Sand Point, a beach that the KBIC has been repairing from the effects of copper mining. About 100 years ago, the mine dumped copper processing waste into Lake Superior polluting miles of shoreline. KBIC capped the pollution & the native plants will be used to attract wildlife & restore the ecosystem. The Zaagkii Project was founded by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette that has sponsored numerous environment projects. The Zaagkii Project is sponsored by the CTI, Marquette County Juvenile Court, KBIC & the United States Forest Service.
Future videos include a look at a bee farm in Marquette County that fascinated Zaagkii Project teens.
Contributors include: Marquette Community Foundation, Negaunee Community Fund, Negaunee Community Youth Fund, M.E. Davenport Foundation, Kaufman Foundation, Phyllis & Max Reynolds Foundation, Upper Peninsula Childrens Museum, Borealis Seed Company.
KBIC Ceo Chris Swartz Jr.
906-353-6623
KBIC Natural Resource Department (NRD)
Todd Warner, Director
Evelyn Ravindran, Natural Resources Specialist
906-524-5757
Kim Klopstein, KBIC Summer Youth Program
906-201-0020
USDA USFS Milwaukee
Jan Schultz, Botany & Non-native Invasive Species
414-297-1189
Beekeeper Jim Hayward
906-475-7582
Cedar Tree Institute Ex. Dir. Rev. Jon Magnuson
906-228-5494
http://www.cedartreeinstitute.org
Mqt Cnty Juvenile Court:
http://www.co.marquette.mi.us/probate.htm
Mqt/Neg community foundations
http://www.mqt-cf.org
U.P. Children's Museum
http://www.upcmkids.org
Bee Movie Jerry Seinfeld & DreamWorks Animation
http://www.beemovie.com:
http://monarchwatch.org
Monarch Author Lynn M. Rosenblatt
http://www.monarchbutterflyusa.com/Magic.htm
Austin, Texas Honeybee video: Johnnie Hargrave
Photos: Richard Burkmar; Paul Billiet & Shirley Burchill
Wikipedia photos: Tübingen-Hagelloch, Björn Appel, Warden, Debi Vort, Kristof Van der Poorten, John Severns, Waugsberg, Kenneth Dwain Harrelson, Derek Ramsey, John O'Neill
http://zaagkiiproject.wordpress.com
http://www.miningjournal.net/page/content.detail/id/519835.html?nav=5001
http://indiancountrynews.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=5028
http://www.indiancountrytoday.com/archive/28395844.htmlMarquette, MI - Northern Michigan teens are continuing their mission to protect... more
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(Marquette, Michigan) - The Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project in Marquette is protecting pollinators like butterflies because billions of honeybees and bumblebees are dying worldwide in syndrome called “Colony Collapse Disorder.”
Marquette teens and Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) youth spent this summer building the first of dozens of white cedar butterfly houses that will be created over the next three years. Lined with bark and slimmer than birdhouses, the shelters offer protection, rest and reproduction safety to Monarchs and other butterflies.
Butterflies are a close second to bees in transferring pollen from one plant to another.
Experts are unsure why bee colonies are collapsing but pesticides, climate change and other man-made reasons are among the suspects. Without pollinators the world food supply will dry up including fruits, vegetables, flowers, other plants and trees.
The Zaagkii Project was founded by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) in Marquette.
“The problem with disappearing pollinators is a cause for concern (because) all life is interconnected,” said Todd Warner, KBIC Natural Resource Director.
Sponsors are KBIC, CTI, Marquette County Juvenile Court and the United States Forest Service (USFS).
“We are seeing a reduction in the number of bumblebees,” said Jan Schultz, Botany and Non-native Invasive Species Program Leader at the USFS eastern region office in Milwaukee.
The Zaagkii Project will plant native plants on the once-barren and polluted Sand Point, a Lake Superior beach that the KBIC is restoring from the effects of old copper mining waste. Marquette teens planted and distributed over 26,000 native plant seeds including at the Hiawatha National Forest greenhouse in Marquette.
The KBIC will use many of the plants at Sand Point Beach that was polluted about 90 years ago with stamp sands from the Mass Mill.
The first tribal Brownfield cleanup site in the Midwest, future plans include a nature tail, restoring a historic lighthouse, swimming, camping, boating, picnic areas and fishing ponds.
The goal is “the propagation of the native species rather than having the exotics come in and destroying what we have established,” said Evelyn Ravindra, KBIC NRD Natural Resources Specialist.
KBIC Summer Youth Program members Ethan Smith,17, and Janelle Paquin,15, and other NativeAmerican teens measured, hammered and painted the butterfly houses.
"We put the bark on the inside for the butterflies to rest on," Smith said.
Marquette teens were given a tour of a bee farm with about 60,000 honeybees.
If all bees disappeared the world food supply would be devastated as “fruits, vegetables, nuts and other commercial crops” vanish, said Beekeeper Jim Hayward of Negaunee Township. “We are all dependent on bees.”
The Marquette teens “went to libraries and studied about the Monarch butterflies and their life cycle and their migration patterns,” said Danny Weymouth, 16.
Restoring indigenous plants is vital to wildlife “so our native species don't get overruled and extinct by predator species,” said Justin Fassbender, 16.
Ensuring the future of native plants is important because “there are a lot of invasive species,” said Devin Dahlstrom, 15.
The public can help protect pollinators by being careful with insecticides, Schultz said.
“Apply the pesticide really early in the morning or at dusk when the pollinators aren’t active,” Schultz said.
The Zaagkii Project contributors include the Marquette Community Foundation, the Negaunee Community Fund, the Negaunee Community Youth Fund, the M.E. Davenport Foundation, the Kaufman Foundation, the Phyllis and Max Reynolds Foundation, theUpper Peninsula Children's Museum in Marquette and the Borealis Seed Company in Big Bay.(Marquette, Michigan) - The Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project in Marquette is protecting... more
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The Native Village website does stories on Native Village youth and education. Each month this unique website puts out an issue of news about Native youth.
http://www.nativevillage.org
In the November 2008 issue, Native Village takes an extensive look at the Zaagkii Wings & Seeds Project in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
The Zaagkii Project thanks and honors Native Village and its Editor Gina Boltz for the excellent story and all the work and effort that went into creating the impressive layout.
To contact Native Village staff or for more info, please email:
NativeVillage500@aol.com
Native Village is a supporter of the Link Center Foundation:
http://www.linkcenterfoundation.org
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This summer, Keweenaw Bay Indian Community (KBIC) youth and Marquette, MI teens built the first of dozens of butterfly houses and planted 26,000 native plants that help pollinators thrive.
The three-year project is important because bees are disappearing around the world at a shocking rate.
It's called Colony Collapse Disorder and the cause is unknown although human impact is suspected.
If all the world's bees disappear - all plant and human life will vanish in about 4 years.
The second biggest pollinator are butterflies - and that's why the Zaagkii Project is protecting butterflies and teaching youth about bees.
The Zaagkii Project contributors include the Marquette Community Foundation, the Negaunee Community Fund, the Negaunee Community Youth Fund, the M.E. Davenport Foundation, the Kaufman Foundation, the Phyllis and Max Reynolds Foundation, with assistance from the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum in Marquette and the Borealis Seed Company in Big Bay.
The Zaagkii Project was founded by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) in Marquette whose other environment projects have included wild rice restoration (Manoomin Project) and Earth Day hazardous waste collections (Earth Keeper Clean Sweep).
The Zaagkii Project is sponsored by the KBIC, CTI, Marquette County Juvenile Court and the United States Forest Service (USFS).
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Keweenaw Bay Indian Community:
http://www.kbic-nsn.gov
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Rev. Jon Magnuson, Zaagkii Wings and Seeds founder & Executive Director of non-profit Cedar Tree Institute
906-228-5494
http://www.cedartreeinstitute.org
CTI volunteer media advisor Greg Peterson:
906-401-0109
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Jan Schultz, Botany & Non-native Invasive Species Program Leader
USFS Milwaukee, WI
(414) 297-1189
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Terry Miller, forest botanist
Hiawatha National Forest
Escanaba, MI.
906-789-3319
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Deb LeBlanc, WestSide Plant Ecologist
Hiawatha National Forest
Munising, MI
906-387-2512 ext. 19
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Marquette County Juvenile Court:
http://www.co.marquette.mi.us/probate.htm
http://www.co.marquette.mi.us/courts.htm
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Upper Peninsula Children's Museum
http://www.upcmkids.org/
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Monarch Watch::
http://monarchwatch.org
Monarch Author Lynn M. Rosenblatt
http://www.monarchbutterflyusa.com/Magic.htmThe Native Village website does stories on Native Village youth and education. Each... more
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In July 2008, a three-year initiative began called the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds Project that involves Native American youth and Marquette teens building butterfly houses and planting over 26,000 native plants to help pollinators recover due to the shocking death of billions of honeybees across the Midwest and around the world.
Butterfly houses are slimmer than better known birdhouses and are lined with bark offering a place for butterflies to rest, be protected and in some cases lay eggs.
It's important as thousands of Monarchs pass thru the U.P. in the annual migration to Mexico of 3 million Monarchs.
Native plants indigenous to any region of the world are important for local pollinators that can be fooled by imported vegetation resulting in death or eggs not hatching.
The Zaagkii Project was founded by Rev. Jon Magnuson and his non-profit Cedar Tree Institute in Marquette, Michigan.
The Keweenaw Bay Indian Community has long supported initiatives like the Zaagkii Project that were founded by the non-profit Cedar Tree Institute (CTI) including wild rice restoration and Earth Day clean sweeps. The three-year Zaagkii Project is sponsored by the KBIC, CTI, Marquette County Juvenile Court and the United States Forest Service.
The Zaagkii Project would not be possible without contributors that include the Marquette Community Foundation, the Negaunee Community Fund, the Negaunee Community Youth Fund, the M.E. Davenport Foundation, the Kaufman Foundation, the Phyllis and Max Reynolds Foundation, with assistance from the Upper Peninsula Children's Museum in Marquette and the Borealis Seed Company in Big Bay.
In July 2008, a three-year initiative began called the Zaagkii Wings and Seeds... more
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